Shenseea‘s “Sun Comes Up” from her debut album Alpha is the trailer soundtrack of Hulu’s limited series “Black Cake” produced by Oprah Winfrey. The song which features Shenseea’s son Rajiero is the track used on the trailer for the series which is an adaptation of Charmaine Wilkerson’s acclaimed novel about family, migration, and the ways that identity is shaped by both loss and preservation.
The novel follows Covey Lyncook, a young woman who flees her Caribbean island home after her father forces her to marry a much older man. Covey takes on a new identity, Eleanor Bennett, and moves to the United Kingdom, where she builds a family with her husband, Bert. However, Eleanor’s past continues to haunt her, and she leaves behind a series of secrets for her children, Byron and Benny, to uncover after her death.
The novel explores the challenges of exile and the ways that violence can shape the lives of diasporas. However, Wilkerson also shows the resilience of immigrants and the ways that they create new traditions and identities in their new homes.
Black Cake starring London Zimbabwean based actress Chipo Chung, Rupert Evans, Ashley Thomas, Adrienne Warren, and Rebecca Calder was filmed on location at Geejam Hotel and other picturesque locations in Portland Jamaica as well as England, Italy, and the United States is a family saga that explores how a mother’s family secrets creates drama for the entire family. The show produced by Harpo Films, Kapital Entertainment and Two Drifters began on November 1 and follows Eleanor Bennett played by the Chung, a Jamaican Chinese woman who comes clean to her children in audio recordings they listen to after her death. Eleanor’s story is one of survival, resilience, and the importance of cultural identity.
Soundtrack
In episode one of season one, at minute 14, Sound Pressure by The Soul Brothers is played when Eleanor begins narrating her childhood story. “Home Home Home” by Ken Boothe is played at 20 minutes when Covey enters the water and shows Gibbs she can surf. Then, she takes him to a place where they can talk privately and make out.
“Carry GO Bring Come” by Justin Hinds & The Dominoes is synchronized at 31 minutes into the episode where Covey plays the song and starts dancing in the kitchen then a man shows up uninvited and harasses her. The River by Trinidadian singers Nap Hepburn & Melody Prince plays in a scene when Covey sits alone 46 minutes into the episode at a party. She notices that Pearl made the wedding cake lilac, even though she knew she disliked this color.
While in episode 2, The Pioneers 1968 song “Easy Come Easy Go” plays when Coventina becomes increasingly lonely. The Ska song Have A Good Time by The Skatalites is synched with Coventina dancing with her friends at the party.
In episode 3, “Need Your Love” by Toots & The Maytals is played ten minutes in, where Coventina searches for a job. Followed by Duke Of Iron’s 1957 rendition of the song “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” played on the day Coventina recalls the day she introduced herself to Gibbs. The Calypso song which has been credited to Trinidadian musician Norman Span (King Radio), D. L. Miller, F. Kuhn, and Charles Harris was first recorded in 1936. Рerfidia by Phyllis Dillon released in 1967 also gets some airtime as Coventina stays up late at work.
Showrunner and creator Marissa Jo Cerar was drawn to the story because of its unique perspective on the Black experience. “I wanted to see Black, brown, Asian people at the forefront of a story that wasn’t about the civil rights movement, slavery, or oppression,” she says.
Cerar also related to the story’s themes of shame and identity. “Shame keeps people apart. Shame keeps people from telling the truth,” she says. “Releasing ourselves from this burden of shame is very, very hard. But if we can muster up the courage, freedom is possible.”
The show’s title, Black Cake, is symbolic of the hope and horror that Eleanor’s story represents. “Black cake evolved from the British plum pudding that colonizers brought to the West Indies,” Cerar explains. “It reflects the marriage of cultures—mine and yours.”
Watch Black Cake trailer below:
